Eric was a very simple person when it came to picking a spot to eat at outside.
As long as the establishment looked so high class and expensive that only the wealthy would even think about entering, then it was good enough for him.
The taste and quality of the food provided was really just a secondary factor to him.
As such, after spending about 10 minutes aimlessly walking around the streets of the city looking for a place to eat, Eric ended up deciding on a luxurious seafood restaurant that he was very familar with.
"Table for one, please." Eric approached the hostess that was by the front entrance of the restaurant and requested.
"Of course, Mr Porter. Right this way." The young hostess, who immediately recognized who Eric was due to his frequent visits to the resturant, smiled warmly and led him to an empty table where he often loved to sit at, which was by the windows with a direct view of the street outside.
Once Eric sat down, the hostess bowed slightly to him and then said, "Your server will be with you shortly, Mr Porter."
"Understood, thank you." Eric lightly nodded returned a friendly smile.
After the hostess walked away, Eric didn't pick up the menu on the table however and instead gazed outside of the windows at the busy streets for a bit.
From there, he saw a variety of different things.
Faces filled with smiles, joy, excitement, and all sorts of happy emotions.
Cars rushing past by through the street under the dull and gray sky.
And buildings of various shapes and sizes bustling with activity and noises.
Even the hospital that was located not too far from where he sat at looked like it was brimming with energy and life.
Honestly, everything looked to be quite nice from where he sat at.
'It's no wonder why I enjoy going to this restaurant so often despite its subpar food quality.' Eric quietly thought to himself as he glanced around the empty resturants for a second before picking up the menu on the table.
However, just as Eric was quickly scanning through the menu looking for something to eat and was about to place his order though, Eric noticed a certain woman with short brown hair from the corner of his eyes.
To be more specific, he had just seen Aria walk into the hospital he had just been glancing at before.
'What a coincidence.' Eric couldn't help but put his menu back down and stared at the entrance of the hospital where Aria had just entered from.
He could likely guess that Aria had gone to the hospital today in order to have her doctor examine the cancer mark on her arm, which was a surprise in and of itself especially considering how stubborn she was, but what mainly surprised him however was the fact that she had gone to the hospital pretty much right away the moment she had a day off from work.
After all, in the novel once Aurora discovered that Aria's recurring deaths were actually caused by the skin cancer that she had, Aurora had to spend so much time in each regression afterwards painstakingly convincing Aria to go to the hospital and have her mark examined, all just so she wouldn't have to watch one of her best friends die again.
So the fact that Aria had willingly decided to the hospital solely because he had randomly mentioned it to her yesterday while he wasn't even trying to convince her to do so at all was honestly completely really weird.
But regardless of what the reasoning was, it has nothing to do with him anymore.
He had already long decided yesterday that he wasn't going to get involved with Aria, or any of the other protagonist's future and current allies ever again, and that was what he was going to stick with.
He was ultimately one of the thousands of villains at the end of the day after all, and that's what he should just simply stay as.
A villain.
One that opposes the protagonist, and the protagonist alone.
Nothing more, nothing less.
'All for the sake of my own survival.'
Certain with his final decision, Eric turned his gaze away from the hospital building and waved his hand at the waiter, ready to finally order some subpar food.
***
After Aria had entered the hospital building and explained to the nurse at the front desk about the reasoning for her unexpected visit here today, the nurse explained to her that she had to wait at least 30 minutes for an available doctor to see her as they weren't a walk-in clinic.
So Aria went over to a waiting room and sat down after filling out her basic information, and took her phone out to scroll through various social media apps as she waited.
Admittedly though, every so often she found herself frequently glancing at the black mark on her left arm for no particular reason at all, and every time she did, she couldn't help but feel a little nervous and anxious.
It really wasn't like her at all.
"Sigh, I just don't get it." Aria quietly mumbled to herself in disbelief.
Honestly, she didn't know why the words of that man weighted so much in her mind.
He was absolutely just a random stranger to her, and an extremely creepy one no less.
And yet, here she was, about a day later actually going out of her way to check and see if what the man had said was true despite the fact that she already knew that it was simply just a burn mark.
"And people say that I'm super hard to convince..." Aria wanted to laugh even just thinking about it.
Just as Aria was about to go back to scrolling through her phone, the doors to the waiting room opened, and a middle-aged doctor in light blue scrubs and short black hair walked in.
"Aria? Aria Holt?"
"Yes? That's me." Aria pocketed her phone and stood up, and the doctor with the scrubs gestured her to follow him.
"Good, then please follow me." The doctor then turned around and led her through the hallways of the hospital.
Once they arrived to an unoccupied exam room, the doctor held the door open for her and gestured her to come inside.
"Thank you." Aria said to the doctor as she stepped into the exam room and sat down on a bed.
"You're welcome, I'll be right back." The doctor said back and then closed the door, leaving her alone inside the room.
About a few seconds later, the doctor returned back with a clipboard.
"Alright Miss Holt, I'm Dr. Yang. It's a pleasure to meet you." Dr. Yang politely greeted her with a small smile then got straight to the chase.
"What seems to be the purpose of your visit today?"
"Let me show you." Aria lifted her left arm slightly so the doctor could see her burn mark better and then asked, "What do you think this is, Dr. Yang?"
"...It appears to be just an ordinary burn mark, Miss Holt." After examining it for a good minute or two, Dr. Yang eventually concluded, seemingly confused at what Aria was trying to get at.
"That's what I believe as well, but yesterday, someone told me that it was actually skin cancer." Aria replied and frowned.
"Oh, really now? Is this person also a doctor by any chance?" Dr. Yang's eyebrows rose up slightly upon hearing what Aria said and closely examined her left arm once again.
"I'm not sure, I didn't know him. He just randomly mentioned it to me in passing." Aria obviously left some of the details out and shook her head.
"Hmm, is that so? Well the thing is that I can't accurately determine if you do have skin cancer or not at just a glance, but judging solely from the coloration and appearance of the mark alone, it doesn't appear to be one." Dr. Yang concluded and put the arm back down.
"Really? That's a relief." Aria breathed out a sigh of relief, feeling much more assured than she was before.
"Yes, but if you want to be completely certain though, and are willing to spend a little bit of money, then we can do what's called a skin biopsy on you. It's where we take a small sample of the tissue in your scar and run it through some tests. After that, we can tell you for sure if it is skin cancer or not." Dr. Yang offered.
Aria didn't respond right away and silently contemplated the offer.
After all, despite having a job, she didn't really have that much money on her, as she had to ultimately take care of herself on her own, and she didn't have many relatives that she could rely on...
Not that she would want to rely on them anyways.
Not to mention that she still had college to worry about as well, and although she didn't have any college debt right now, there were no guarantees that she wouldn't have any in the future, and she wanted to have at least some backup money for emergencies.
As such, after thinking about it for a long time and making the doctor wait for a while, Aria ultimately decided against it.
"Sorry, but I don't think I can afford a biopsy right now." Aria shook her head and apologized.
"No worries, I understand." Dr. Yang smiled understandingly before considering something and then opened his mouth again, "Actually, how about this, Miss Holt, what if you just do the biopsy for free anyways, and only pay for it if the results come out positive?"
"...You'd be willing to do that for me, Dr. Yang?" Aria asked in a somewhat surprised manner.
She knew that her good looks often got her preferential treatment from men, but she knew that skin biospies weren't cheap at all.
"Sure, why not? We're actually a high-end private hospital that's especially catered to high-profile individuals anyways, so we have a lot of money already. Plus, we can get you your results back within an hour as well." Dr. Yang shrugged.
"If you say so, then sure. Thank you, Dr. Yang." Aria smiled politely and didn't refuse the offer.
Although his motive was definitely obvious and clear to her, she knew that it would be foolish to pass up such an opportunity like this.
"Of course, anything for a pretty lady like you." Dr. Yang slightly chuckled and then picked up a small scalpel from the medical cabinet.
"Hold still for me."
Aria nodded and tried her best not to move a muscle while Dr. Yang did his job.
After cutting a small piece of the burn mark off and placing it in a container, Dr. Yang then placed a bandage on the cut and said, "Alright, all done. I'll send this to the lab immediately. Just go ahead and stay here in the meantime, and I'll be back with the results as soon as possible."
"Got it, thank you once again Dr. Yang." Aria thanked Dr. Yang again and slowly bowed to him as she watched him leave.
Afterwards, she plopped on the examination bed and opened up her phone again as she waited for the results of the test.
However, instead of scrolling through her phone though, this time she sent a few text messages to a good friend of hers keeping her updated about everything that has happened today so far.
After all, this good friend of hers was the only person in the entire world who truly knew her best, and she felt comfortable sharing a lot of things with her.
Besides, it appears that this good friend of hers seems also somewhat interested in the incident from yesterday as well, as when she had described to the good friend of hers what the creepy stranger looked like, the good friend replied back immediately, something that her good friend didn't do often, and began asking a bunch of really weird questions.
Things like what did he do to you, did he look wealthy, and so on.
Of course, Aria answered all of the questions in detail, as she knew that the good friend was just concerned for her.
'Still, this is the most questions she's ever asked me ever when something like this occurs...' Aria inwardly thought.
Nevertheless, she didn't think much else of it, and after she finished texting to her good friend about everything that's happened today so far, Aria opened a social media app and began scrolling away...
Or that was what she was about to do when she glanced out of the hospital window and spotted a familiar face eating across the street at a high-end restaurant a few stories above.
And it certainly wasn't a face that she wanted to see at all.
"Is he stalking me or something? That's creepy..." Even though Aria knew that it definitely wasn't the case at all since he hadn't once even glanced back at her direction whatsoever, she still couldn't help but softly blurt out.
And looking at him even more thoroughly now, she couldn't help but get even more chills from him than before.
She honestly didn't really know how to explain it, but just the way that the man casually sat there and ate his food alone...
Felt so incredibly off to her.
It was as if he wasn't bound by the same world she and everyone else lived in, and even if everything around him were to vanish into nothingness in the next few seconds, he wouldn't care about it at all.
"Maybe that was why I ended up listening to his stupid advice..." Aria sighed in her heart.
Well, whatever the reason may be, she honestly didn't want to see the man for even a single second longer.
As such, she turned her gaze back to her phone and resumed scrolling away.
A few minutes later, Dr. Yang had finally returned back to the room.
However, unlike the friendly or even normal expression he had on his face awhile ago, Dr. Yang's face now looked extremely serious and concerned.
"Dr. Yang, what's the matter? Have the results come back yet?" Aria couldn't help but ask.
Dr. Yang hesitated for a moment before slowly nodding his head.
"Miss Holt, I'm sorry to tell you this..."
"But you do have skin cancer after all."